This is great news.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s sons plans to hold a private fundraiser for insurgent GOP Senate candidate Marco Rubio next month, Rubio told Fox News. 

The active involvement of George P. Bush and Jeb Bush Jr. in the race raises the possibility that their father could endorse Rubio down the road and give his campaign added momentum against the GOP front-runner, Gov. Charlie Crist.

Jeb Bush, who has dismissed suggestions he’ll support Rubio, still is enormously popular in the state, with a recent poll pegging his approval rating at 70 percent, outshining Crist. His backing could help Rubio offset Crist’s considerable fundraising advantage. 

Crist and Rubio, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, are facing off to fill the Senate seat vacated by former Sen. Mel Martinez. 

Governor Bush is incredibly popular in Florida still, with over 70% of Republicans in Florida saying they’d rather him than Crist. Likewise, over 50% of independent women say Jeb is a better governor.

In addition to Governor Bush, both of his sons remain quite popular in Florida and especially among conservatives, where they have been refreshingly candid in their support of small government and freedom.

Having their support in and of itself is great, but it is also pretty clearly a tacit endorsement from their dad.

This get even more momentum going in Rubio’s direction.

Amen and Amen.

“There’s some in our party that want to assume that government is the answer to all of our problems,” Bush said at a meeting of young Republicans, as reported by the Orlando News. “You know who I’m talking about,” he added, referencing Crist.

I have no doubt Charlie Crist wants to run for President of the United States. The guy would be worse than John McCain.

Multiple people tell me that Mel Martinez contemplated leaving his seat early, but Crist talked him out of it because Crist thought he’d be under too much pressure to appoint Jeb Bush to the seat.

Why doesn’t Crist like Jeb? Because Jeb is an effective conservative. Charlie Crist is not. Witness Crist going wobbly on tax increases to balance Florida’s budget. Crist is much more interested in protecting endangered animals than Florida’s tax payers.

It is incumbent on conservatives to begin now building up a great storehouse of Crist anecdotes showing how terrible he is so that he’s radioactive by 2012.

He would be wholly unacceptable as a Presidential nominee for the GOP. Crist has no principles beyond an instinct toward sticking his finger in the wind. And through his appointments within the Republican Party apparatus in Florida, he is tearing down a once very strong party.

Good on George P. Bush for standing up and telling the truth.

We should carry this headline into 2012 and club Charlie Crist like a baby seal with it: “Obama Teams With Florida Governor to Push Stimulus”.